In communication networks, customer impacting disruptions sometimes occur. Most of these disruptions produce alarms that allow network operators to quickly restore service. Occasionally, however, defects in the network occur and are masked as normal events. For example sometimes the network fails to detect the active status of an endpoint connected to it and sends a call destined to that endpoint directly to voicemail. This event occurs because of a miscommunication between the endpoint and the network and not because the endpoint is truly unavailable. Since the network is temporarily blind to the true status of the endpoint, this type of event is treated as normal even though customers are impacted by not being able to receive calls.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for enabling the detection of transparent defects in packet switched networks, e.g., VoIP networks.